173 research outputs found
Calculations of spin induced transport in ferromagnets
Based on first-principles density functional calculations, a general approach
for determining and analyzing the degree of spin polarization (P) in
ferromagnets is presented. The approach employs the so-called tetrahedron
method to evaluate the Fermi surface integrations of P in both ballistic and
diffusive regimes. The validity of the method is examined by comparing the
calculated P values for Fe and Ni with the experiment. The method is shown to
yield highly accurate results with minimal computational effort. Within our
approach, it is also possible to systematically analyze the contributions of
various types of electronic states to the spin induced transport. As a case
study, the transport properties of the soft-ferromagnet CeMnNi4 are
investigated in order to explain the origin of the existing difference between
the experimental and theoretical values of P in this intermetallic compound.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures; to appear in Physical Review B 75 (2007
Zero-bias anomalies in electrochemically fabricated nanojunctions
A streamlined technique for the electrochemical fabrication of metal
nanojunctions (MNJs) between lithographically defined electrodes is presented.
The first low-temperature transport measurements in such structures reveal
suppression of the conductance near zero-bias. The size of the zero-bias
anomaly (ZBA) depends strongly on the fabrication electrochemistry and the
dimensions of the resulting MNJ. We present evidence that the nonperturbative
ZBA in atomic-scale junctions is due to a density of states suppression in the
leads.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Anomalous Aharonov-Bohm conductance oscillations from topological insulator surface states
We study transport properties of a topological insulator nanowire when a
magnetic field is applied along its length. We predict that with strong surface
disorder, a characteristic signature of the band topology is revealed in
Aharonov Bohm (AB) oscillations of the conductance. These oscillations have a
component with anomalous period , and with conductance maxima at
odd multiples of , i.e. when the AB phase for surface electrons
is . This is intimately connected to the band topology and a surface
curvature induced Berry phase, special to topological insulator surfaces. We
discuss similarities and differences from recent experiments on BiSe
nanoribbons, and optimal conditions for observing this effect.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Dynamical mean field theory for strongly correlated inhomogeneous multilayered nanostructures
Dynamical mean field theory is employed to calculate the properties of
multilayered inhomogeneous devices composed of semi-infinite metallic lead
layers coupled via barrier planes that are made from a strongly correlated
material (and can be tuned through the metal-insulator Mott transition). We
find that the Friedel oscillations in the metallic leads are immediately frozen
in and don't change as the thickness of the barrier increases from one to
eighty planes. We also identify a generalization of the Thouless energy that
describes the crossover from tunneling to incoherent Ohmic transport in the
insulating barrier. We qualitatively compare the results of these
self-consistent many-body calculations with the assumptions of
non-self-consistent Landauer-based approaches to shed light on when such
approaches are likely to yield good results for the transport.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Interaction of a CO molecule with a Pt monatomic wire: electronic structure and ballistic conductance
We carry out a first-principles density functional study of the interaction
between a monatomic Pt wire and a CO molecule, comparing the energy of
different adsorption configurations (bridge, on top, substitutional, and tilted
bridge) and discussing the effects of spin-orbit (SO) coupling on the
electronic structure and on the ballistic conductance of two of these systems
(bridge and substitutional). We find that, when the wire is unstrained, the
bridge configuration is energetically favored, while the substitutional
geometry becomes possible only after the breaking of the Pt-Pt bond next to CO.
The interaction can be described by a donation/back-donation process similar to
that occurring when CO adsorbs on transition-metal surfaces, a picture which
remains valid also in presence of SO coupling. The ballistic conductance of the
(tipless) nanowire is not much reduced by the adsorption of the molecule on the
bridge and on-top sites, but shows a significant drop in the substitutional
case. The differences in the electronic structure due to the SO coupling
influence the transmission only at energies far away from the Fermi level so
that fully- and scalar-relativistic conductances do not differ significantly.Comment: 12 pages, 12 figures; figure misplacement and minor syntax issues
fixed, some references updated and correcte
Spin-polarized electron transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures: Unification of ballistic and diffusive transport
A theory of spin-polarized electron transport in ferromagnet/semiconductor
heterostructures, based on a unified semiclassical description of ballistic and
diffusive transport in semiconductor structures, is developed. The aim is to
provide a framework for studying the interplay of spin relaxation and transport
mechanism in spintronic devices. A key element of the unified description of
transport inside a (nondegenerate) semiconductor is the thermoballistic current
consisting of electrons which move ballistically in the electric field arising
from internal and external electrostatic potentials, and which are thermalized
at randomly distributed equilibration points. The ballistic component in the
unified description gives rise to discontinuities in the chemical potential at
the boundaries of the semiconductor, which are related to the Sharvin interface
conductance. By allowing spin relaxation to occur during the ballistic motion
between the equilibration points, a thermoballistic spin-polarized current and
density are constructed in terms of a spin transport function. An integral
equation for this function is derived for arbitrary values of the momentum and
spin relaxation lengths. For field-driven transport in a homogeneous
semiconductor, the integral equation can be converted into a second-order
differential equation that generalizes the standard spin drift-diffusion
equation. The spin polarization in ferromagnet/semiconductor heterostructures
is obtained by invoking continuity of the current spin polarization and
matching the spin-resolved chemical potentials on the ferromagnet sides of the
interfaces. Allowance is made for spin-selective interface resistances.
Examples are considered which illustrate the effects of transport mechanism and
electric field.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, REVTEX 4; minor corrections introduced; to
appear in Phys. Rev.
Evolution of a bosonic mode across the superconducting dome in the high-Tc cuprate Pr(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4-{\delta})
We report a detailed spectroscopic study of the electron doped cuprate
superconductor Pr(2-x)Ce(x)CuO(4-{\delta}) using point contact junctions for
x=0.125(underdoped), x=0.15(optimally doped) and x=0.17(overdoped). From our
conductance measurements we are able to identify bosonic resonances for each
doping. These excitations disappear above the critical temperature, and above
the critical magnetic field. We find that the energy of the bosonic excitations
decreases with doping, which excludes lattice vibrations as the paring glue. We
conclude that the bosonic mediator for these cuprates is more likely to be spin
excitations.Comment: 4 page
Andreev experiments on superconductor/ferromagnet point contacts
Andreev reflection is a smart tool to investigate the spin polarisation P of
the current through point contacts between a superconductor and a ferromagnet.
We compare different models to extract P from experimental data and investigate
the dependence of P on different contact parameters.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Fizika Nizkikh
Temperatu
Ballistic resistivity in aluminum nanocontacts
One of the major industrial challenges is to profit from some fascinating
physical features present at the nanoscale. The production of dissipationless
nanoswitches (or nanocontacts) is one of such attractive applications.
Nevertheless, the lack of knowledge of the real efficiency of electronic
ballistic/non dissipative transport limits future innovations. For multi-valent
metallic nanosystems -where several transport channels per atom are involved-
the only experimental technique available for statistical transport
characterization is the conductance histogram. Unfortunately its interpretation
is difficult because transport and mechanical properties are intrinsically
interlaced. We perform a representative series of semiclassical molecular
dynamics simulations of aluminum nanocontact breakages, coupled to full quantum
conductance calculations, and put in evidence a linear relationship between the
conductance and the contact minimum cross-section for the geometrically favored
aluminum nanocontact configurations. Valid in a broad range of conductance
values, such relation allows the definition of a transport parameter for
nanomaterials, that represents the novel concept of ballistic resistivity
Coexistence of a triplet nodal order-parameter and a singlet order-parameter at the interfaces of ferromagnet-superconductor Co/CoO/In junctions
We present differential conductance measurements of Cobalt / Cobalt-Oxide /
Indium planar junctions, 500nm x 500nm in size. The junctions span a wide range
of barriers, from very low to a tunnel barrier. The characteristic conductance
of all the junctions show a V-shape structure at low bias instead of the
U-shape characteristic of a s-wave order parameter. The bias of the conductance
peaks is, for all junctions, larger than the gap of indium. Both properties
exclude pure s-wave pairing. The data is well fitted by a model that assumes
the coexistence of s-wave singlet and equal spin p-wave triplet fluids. We find
that the values of the s-wave and p-wave gaps follow the BCS temperature
dependance and that the amplitude of the s-wave fluid increases with the
barrier strength.Comment: 5 pages, Accepted to Phys. Rev.
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